San Francisco, Day 3

Saturday, July 12

While Noelle indulged in some last minute retail therapy, I wandered along Market Street and some of the streets that run off it to see what was around. I was interested to see the variety in some of the old buildings that were constructed after the big earthquake and fire in the early 1900s. I couldn't resist a few streetscape photos to include in today's post.

The Hobart building and SF fire truck

Wells Fargo bank building

View along Market Street

After lunch we returned to our hotel to give ourselves plenty of time to pack in preparation for the flights tomorrow, one from SF to LA, and the next from LA back to Melbourne via Sydney. We wanted to get this done before we caught up with Steve and Karen, a couple we met on the first cruise who live in SF. They had contacted us a few weeks back re catching up and suggested we go to a local show called "Beach Blanket Babylon", which is the longest running musical revue in the world. The revue is renowned for the amazing and outlandish hats/headgear worn by the performers.

We met Steve and Karen in the lobby, and Steve organized a car for us using Uber to take us to the theatre. We weren't familiar with Uber even though it operates in Melbourne but were really impressed with the service. At the theatre seats are only allocated to a section but not to specific seats so it's a case of lining up to get the best seats in the section booked. Karen kindly offered to stay in line so that we could go and have a drink in Capps Corner, a famous Italian restaurant that is a real institution in SF and is right next door to the theatre. As Karen was near the front of the line, we got the best seats when the theatre opened its doors. Once in our seats, we had plenty of time before the show started to catch up on all the news from the 2 months since we were last together on the ship.

Steve, Karen, Noelle and Alan in front of the Club Fugazi

The theatre was quite small but ideal for a musical revue, and the show certainly lived up to its reputation. The music, singing, dancing and costumes were great, but the hats the performers wore topped it off (pardon the pun)! They were just amazing!! There was a cast of characters (politicians, entertainers etc) who helped Snow White find love with clever, witty, updated satirical words to go with great old recognizable tunes. Everyone loved it and it was a fabulous way to spend the last night of this incredible trip. Below is a photo of the sales brochure with 2 examples of hats worn by the performers! The extra large hat with the SF scene on it even had a little cable car. At the end of the show, the cast sang "San Francisco open your golden gate ..." and the theatre went dark and all the buildings on the hat lit up and the cable car moved forward and back along the brim - quite a hat!

After the show we went to an Italian restaurant for dinner and it was really nice to spend time with our friends. Steve ordered another car through Uber (we were very impressed Steve) and after saying goodbye we returned to our room to put the finishing touches to our packing. We have a l-o-n-g day ahead of us!

 

 

Posted with Blogsy